Covid-19: Why have deaths soared in Brazil? - BBC News

The rapid spread of a coronavirus variant first discovered in Brazil has been a major cause for concern around the world.

He continues to oppose lockdowns, but his government has now stepped up its drive to vaccinate the country's population of more than 200 million people.

Brazil has by far the highest overall death toll in Latin America.

Brazil has had a strong record in conducting vaccination campaigns and compared with many other countries in Latin America, it has a well-established healthcare infrastructure.

Only around half the target of 46 million vaccine doses were delivered by the end of March.

In August, Brazil's government turned down an offer from Pfizer to purchase up to 70 million doses of its vaccine.

It has recently ordered 100 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine, but the bulk of these will not arrive until the second half of the year.

The government has also ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine produced by Chinese firm Sinovac, despite President Bolsonaro criticising it in the past.

Brazil has in-country production of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which the government says will eventually provide millions of jabs - but a lack of the active ingredients needed to make the vaccine means that initial production in Brazilian labs has been limited?

In particular, the P.1 variant has become a cause for concern because it is thought to be much more contagious than the original strain and has been spreading across Latin America and the world?

Covid - what's gone wrong in Brazil

Covid - what's gone wrong in Brazil

Covid - what's gone wrong in Brazil?4